Experienced hubbers - what was it like for you in the beginning?

Can you remember what it was like when you first started to write Hubs?

Before you read this rambly post - please know that I am not a newbie trying to suck you dry for information without doing any of the work myself. What I'm interested in is how you got through the first few months? How did you know if you were any good? How did you stay motivated?

I have never done anything like this before. In my first month I published 37 hubs, got 1000 views, and earnt a staggering 10 cents. I'm not after $millions, or a fast return, I am willing to work hard, learn, and develop this income stream over time. What I'm finding really difficult is how to judge how I'm doing and whether I should keep at it, or just get a 'real' job. In my former life (before becoming a stay at home mum) I knew I was succesful because my boss would tell me I'd done a great job, I would get good appraisals, and pay rises & bonuses. Now I haven't got a clue.

So 1) How did you keep motivated in the beginning?And2) Can you remember what your stats were like at the start? If you were all pulling 1000 views a day from the your first week, then I know I've gone wrong somewhere.

Well i think in the first year i wrote about 20 hubs and saw about £1 i only wrote when i was bored and wrote about topics i was passionate about,but then i had a week off work and for some reason wrote 15 hubs in one week and then continued from there,after about a year and a half was when i was making a bit of cash,probably about £6-7 a month,then this year i set a goal of writing roughly 10-12 hubs a month and i have stuck to it and am reaping the rewards,with ebay and adsense i am currently earning about £60 a month,so $100 roughly,keep it up and you will earn!!

Well, I started with my own .com's before I ever made it to Hubpages/Squidoo, so I already knew it took a bit of work to make money. I started seeing the dollar signs from my old mega guild for massively multiplayer games that had over 250 members (1,000+ guests per day too) in it and had about 12,000-18,000 hits per day with over 500,000 posts and roughly 128,000 topics. I figured one day that I would toss up an ad (Google Adsense) to help pay for the bandwidth.. and basically at that point my eye's shot out of my head. Then proceeded to create content, build more websites, do Squidoo (brother got me into it before Hubpages) then on to Hubpages.

Well I started with the intention of just creating a social site for gamers of my guild, and I didn't look at the dollar signs during that period. When I put up the first ad (mind you, I had a lot of rebellious people disliking it - for a little while) I was like.. Wow, nice side money! So I started kinda backwards if you get my point of view, I had the traffic already.

all i can tell you is if you can work out how to back link etc, and your writing is good, you should earn.

Personally i do not earn, i just improve my writing skills, and make friends on here. One day it could all be different but for now, i am happy not stressing about money. Everyone is so encouraging, and kind, i love hub pages, it will get easier for you because we are a kind loving, writing encouraging community, god bless.

Spacey Gracey, I would look to hubbers who have been here a long time such as relache, Mark Knowles, Darkside and so many others who not only know the ropes, but offer great advice. Welcome and good luck. It does take some time to get paying hits. Paying being the operative word. I hope this helps.

When I started , HubPages was still in its beta/test stage, so no one on the site hardly had traffic and no one earned anything. Most of the present capsules didn't exist, and the forums wouldn't exist for over a year more. There were only about four staff period, and if you had any questions or problems, all you could do was write directly to them. And things were a tad wonky, so fixes and such got uploaded constantly.

I got started writing over at Squidoo, and heard this was similar but different, a statement which I find still holds true. I guess it was close to six months before the site truly opened up to the public, and I think I had about a dozen Hubs by then and made about $5 in AdSense that month.

It was about a year and around 75 Hubs before I was getting monthly payouts, but the overall growth of the site, regardless of my actions, has pretty much been upwards from that point on.

I think I had - like $2.83 (or something like that) at the end of the first month. The next figure I remember well (from "the beginning") was $5 and change. Maybe I had $9 at the end of the second or third month. I don't recall, but I remember that "big" $9 (as compared to the first months' couple of dollars.

It wasn't until 8 months that I got the first pay-out. Right after that I started being paid monthly. Starting out not knowing what I was doing on here, and without making a whole lot of changes to how I was doing things, I'm earning pretty well now. The difference between now and then is that I now know what I should have been doing (and should be doing), still don't do a lot of it (only so much time for Hubs), but have had the benefit of time and some Hubs about things people search for often. So, I earn reasonably well now, with the earnings seeming to be picking up as time goes on (although April may not quite reach my previous "all-time high" on here, but it's close).

I guess my advice to someone new would be to write at least a few Hubs on things you know a lot of people search for, if for no reason other than boosting earnings enough to keep you motivated. You can still throw in Hubs on whatever you want to write about, but having at least a few of those "in-demand" subjects makes a big difference.

Other advice: Keep writing and adding Hubs. I didn't really think I'd earn much on here, so I didn't make sure I kept adding Hubs regularly. I've lost a lost of "quantity time" by not working on increasing the number of Hubs faster.

That's not bad at all, since it takes a bit of time to be properly indexed in search engines, as well as during that first initial time your still making more hubs.

When I first started making money it was in a fashion that I didn't expect (my online guild organization) that I mentioned earlier. I didn't even get my feet wet from starting small.. it was like nothing... nothing... *puts up ads*.. BAM!

Thanks for your replies - especially Mark for being so honest, although I guess HubPages was just a baby then too so you've grown together.

Lisa - are you saying I should keep churning out heartless hubs for a while so they can mature and later make money - then I can concentrate on writing stuff I actually want to write? That was my plan. If you see what I've written already, I promise you it was not my life's dream to write about 'nasal aspirators'. Planned on putting on 100 of these type of hubs in the hope they would earn enough to stop me having to get a job in local supermarket, so that once kids are both at school (18 months time ) I can justify staying home and calling myself a freelance writer. Also I am learning a lot while I write that stuff, without having to spend too much energy on the actual writing.

Spacey Gracey, I think you should be diversifying. Split your time half on HubPages and half on freelance writing. They're two different things.

Think of HubPages as building up a bank of money for the future - they take months to start earning. Then read some of Sufidreamer's Hubs about being a freelance writer,sign up for some of the sites and start looking for work that will pay now.

I didn't understand about Adsense or Amazon for the first few months as I barely participated on this site at first. Like the others, it took a few months after learning a bit until I received a pay out on Adsense but after that it gets easier. At least in my experience.

Amazon has taken me longer but I really haven't pushed the products very hard. I did sell over a thousand dollars of stuff this month, so Amazon does bring in a few bucks too.

But you will also find people who have been here several years without much success in either program. You don't know until you try it yourself.

When I started I knew nothing, had never publshed anything online before or had any experience running websites.

It took me 10 months to reach my first Google payout. At first, pennies a day and very few views per day.

My advice: read the posts in the forums from very experienced hubbers. Take their advice. Write quality hubs. Backlink. Most importantly be patient. Over time, with the right tools, the money comes in more and more each day, week, month. You average views increase over time as well.

My experience was very much the same as bgpappa. When I first came to HP in Oct 2008, I had virtually no experience at writing. I put up a few hubs, and made something like 9 cents that first month. It also took me 10 months to reach my first payout (pd in 11th month). But now I reach payout monthly most months. Along the way, I have learned tons, but still read and try to absorb more. If you want to make money on HP, then read everything you can from Darkside, Sunforged, Relache, Nelle Hoxie, Dave Mazurek, and Mark Knowles.

When I was new I didn't focus on earnings only the quality of the hub. My objective was to get people to read my work and find my niche'I didn't focus on 1000 page views a week but became excited when my work began to rank. I have saved several of my hubs from almost 3 years ago and reflecting on them, I have certainly came a long way. If I could not find anything to write on there were times when the 'Answers' button would give me great ideas or I would get invoved with the HubMob which kept my creative juices flowing. Continue to write not stressing yourself over SEO and views , read other hubbers work continue to write and the Revenue will come. What may work for others, may not always work for you find your Niche' and the adsense will jingle.

I still consider myself new, in comparison to so many others Some days I want to write for income, others, I just want to write what I want and let it fly I have a long way to go, but there is so much support here & excellent role models! Keep hubbin'

I just had my first anniversary here on HP. My first year has been focussed on writing and writing and writing more in order to improve my skills and learn my way within HP. I've also watched, listened, read and learned from many of the more veteran hubbers like Mark Knowles, Darkside, Sunforged, Relache, AEvans, Ryankett and a few others. I only began the affiliate programs 4 months ago, and still have yet to reach a payout. My stragety for my second year will be focusing on writing in several categories which will lend to more productive earnings. I have also begun to concentrate more time on backlinking (now that I understand it more) and on SEO. Hopefully, by year three I'll be seeing a steady flow of income. One thing I have learned is that it takes time and patience. Good thing this isn't my bread and butter!!

There are some really good posts here. Personally, I would say it all depends on why you're here. If your goal is to make money, then follow the advice of earnestshubs and Marisa. If your goal is to improve your writing, then write. If you're looking to network, join in the fun on the forums - but be careful. If you're just looking to write and aren't worried too much about the other stuff, well, write and learn at the same time. That's what I'm doing.

When I first started, I published a bunch of old essays and parts of papers that I had already written. I didn't really understand SEO and barely earned any money. Nevertheless, I was really encouraged by successful hubbers stories and was convinced that I had to spend a lot of time learning SEO. In May, I began learning and wrote - A LOT. My goal was to have a huge number of hubs published during the summer of '09 (I think I wrote around 100-125). Once you learn SEO and get a system going, it can only get better. Here are my Adsense earnings of the first few months:

As you can see, once I spent the time figuring how to get traffic from Google (in May), my earnings dramatically increased. Now, my earnings are about double that and I don't publish much anymore. (residual income is great!) Amazon is a different story and I didn't start making much until last December. Ever since then, I've been pulling in $100+ from Amazon as I took the time to figure out how to write product hubs.

It has gotten to the point where I don't have much time to write because of school, but I am out in two weeks and plan on writing MANY hubs this summer. By next summer, I hope to double my efforts again!

You can find lots of motivation by doing research, reading SEO blogs and reading the great advice on the forums and in advice hubs. You CAN earn money, you just have to work hard and stick with it!

I think a lot of people think that simply writing a large number of hubs will earn them more money. Not at all true. They key is write a large number of hubs on topics that you've researched that have a nice earning potential. Once you master this, it is impossible not to be motivated, because you'll quickly come to realize that everything you write will earn you money month after month.

Again, I can't reiterate it enough - people are probably wasting their time if they don't learn SEO first! You can write tons of stuff, but if no one finds it in a search engine, they can't view your work and won't click on your ads or buy products.

I'm making about $75 a month from 100 hubs. The key is to think like a marketing guru and not a writer. Writers are mostly poor, marketing gurus mostly drive Ferraris.

I've had reasonable success in two niches (relationships and finance). Relationships gets a lot of traffic and plenty of low value clicks. Finance is competitive but you don't need many clicks to get a good return on your time spend writing hubs.

I worry I've exhausted those niches so I need to find some new niches. I like travel writing but I haven't cracked that yet in terms of making hard cash.

Hats off to Amazon gurus like girly_girl09, I've had very limited success so far. I am far better on Adsense and I regularly get those lovely $2+ clicks.

After a year now, and starting over again, I have all the same feelings as I did way backk then.

I am struggling once again with prioritizing what to do first,

comment?reading hubs?Hub Hoping?responding to emails?responding to hub comments?Reading and meeting new hubbers?Moderating fan mail and reading that persons profiles and Hubsanalyzing my stats?where is my traffic coming from?corresponding with mornings list of new hubs from the hubbers I follow?and what about writing?compiling capsules and creating hubs?publishing?distributing new hub for exposure/traffic?Forum visits-meet people-play with hubbers I know-laughemail hubbers on certain work related topics?answering interesting questions?Asking questions?Adsense review?managing more than one accountlaughing at Greek One?sometimes checking back to see a response on my comment if it was important?stalking mark knowles?creative developing and taking the time to choose next hub topic?

etc.

YOUR not alone.

LOL

Funny part I Get very little done, I haven't found my rhythm again, though I will.

The key is just posting your work. Don't worry about the traffic or your hubscore. At the end of the day its about sharing your talent with others and maybe getting published. If not; just for the sheer love of the craft. Another thing to do is check out other hubs read other's work. There are a well of excellent writers on this site. With various information and points of views. Reading others work will make you a better writer. When you start bogging your mind down with traffic and hubscores, it takes the fun out of the writing. Good luck Happy hubbing ~hugs~

I was worried I would find out that even though I enjoy writing, I would come to learn that I was not good at it. I was never worried about making or not making money-I more so looked at the Hubs as a place to release some of the mess that was stored in my mind, and hopefully get a little encouragement that I wasn't alone in the way that I thought and/or felt. I had some early followers and supporters that made me feel welcome and gave some helpful advice, and have made some friends which I admire for their own style and experiences... and from what they have told me, I don't "suck" at this whole writing thing, lol, which was great news considering I am not sure I know of another place or outlet I can use the way that I use Hub Pages to release whatever thoughts my mind happens to produce. Hub Pages has been a blessing for me and has given me back some things that I had forgotten I ever had-and because of this new found focus and clarity, has made me stronger and placed me in a better position to hopefully encourage some others who need a little encouragement... It can be a little intimidating to see writers with perfect (close to perfect) scores, and when you hear that others are getting 100, 200, 500+ views a day and you haven't even been able to produce a hub that has earned 50 views, you may feel like you are doing something wrong. It is important to realize that it takes time, and the most important thing you can do is to continue to write for yourself. I liked the forums a lot when I first started, it allowed me to meet some others and find some writers which I wanted to investigate further (read their writing). So I did, and followed people I found interesting and/or talented. From the start I have found Hub Pages to be a very supportive community of some great talents, and as long as I stayed away from the religious forums and stayed respectful to others views, things continued to go well. Don't worry about being the best on Hub Pages- just be the best you can be while apart of Hub Pages.

My first few days were filled with following instructions. Whatever HubPages informed me I needed to do, I pretty much did it. I hadn't got a cloo what the site was about either. I was just wanting to learn about websites. I did publish a hub or two in and among - because the instruction manual kept pointing out that this was for writing and publishing.

It's now gone by the way. It was very silly

I suppose, looking back, I was a little anal. But I do like reading instructions

I think everyone of us has to find our own path that works best for us. It's has been a long process but a healthy one for me. I started earning about my 8 month as well or really seeing the benefits of writing but publishing hubs regularly has been critical. Find your path, it will work, promise!

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